England does not need new privacy law to protect celebrities and other people
in the public eye, MPs and peers say in major report.

The Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions found that courts “are now striking a better balance in dealing with applications for privacy injunctions”.

But the report also concluded that bloggers and other “major news publishers” should be subject to new form of press regulation, with powers to fine, determine size and location of apology, and play a greater role in arbitrating disputes.

The committee was set up after a public outcry over an expansion in gagging orders being taken out to stop the press reporting people’s private lives.

The court orders – called super-injunctions because their existence could not be reported - were taken out by the likes of Sir Fred Goodwin and Ryan Giggs. The report states: “We conclude that a privacy statute would not clarify the law.”

John Whittingdale MP, the committee’s chairman, said last night: “We concluded that the existing position, where each case is judged by the courts on an individual basis, is now working reasonably well.”

The report was also highly critical of parents who deliberately allow their children to be photographed and then ask for privacy.

It says: “Parents who expose their children to public gaze for their own commercial gain or publicity are irresponsible and make it harder for them to defend their children’s right to privacy in other circumstances.”

However, “even in those instances” children’s privacy could only be invaded by the press for “exceptional reasons”, they said.

It recommends that companies should only be able to advertise in publications that are subscribe to rules set by the regulator.

It also suggests that a new Parliamentary commission looks at a new independent regulator with statutory oversight of press.

It also recommends that internet companies like Google that fail “to take active steps to limit the potential for breaches of court orders” could be force to by law.

Any breaches of injunctions on the internet should be punished by Attorney General Dominic Grieve, they said.

The committee also says that the press should be protected when reporting Parliament, but that MPs should only breach injunctions “where there is good reason to do so”.

The report was not agreed unanimously, with seven peers and MPs rejecting it, and 10 accepting it, largely because of disagreement about the need for statutory regulation.